Mengde attacks with Surprise Villain. Mengde's Surprise Villain crits you for 9,030. All tiles chun. One million points. Coherency spelled backwards is incoherent. Chapter XXVI.
Reno let his back go completely slack and began to fall backwards, getting his head away from the blade pointed at it. At the same time, he kicked his legs out from under him to free himself from the kneeling position and tried to plant his feet firmly in Souta's groin.
The old man was having none of that. Right hand still gripping the Kikuichi-monji, he stepped out of range, then grabbed Reno's ankle with his left hand and heaved.
Cursing with more surprise than fear, Reno had a second of clarity before Souta swung him into a full-on collision with the statue of Seiryū. The impact sent waves of pain screaming through Reno's body, and he could have sworn that he heard the jade crack with the force of his impact.
Almost contemptuously, Souta let go of Reno's ankle and let the Turk fall to the floor with a dull thud. "Now you just lie there, Mr. Reno, while I attend to your friends."
Throbbing so badly that he couldn't move, Reno squinted and now managed to make out the prone forms of Rude and Makoto. Souta had taken them out from behind when Reno had rushed to Yuffie's side.
Now the old man tossed Rude and Makoto unceremoniously onto the floor next to Yuffie and disappeared into the side hallway of the temple for a moment. He returned, dragging Rei and Jobs behind him.
"Holy shit," Reno gasped, the effort of speaking sending pain shooting up and down his ribs.
"That's what I said," Yuffie growled, still worrying at her ropes.
His face a study in lethal seriousness, Souta dumped Rei and Jobs next to Rude and Makoto. "I think it time that everyone woke up." Crouching down, he pressed his thumbs to what seemed to be significant pressure points on the four prone figures, and one by one they regained consciousness.
"What the hell happened?" Rude asked, rubbing at his neck, before he came fully awake and started violently at the sight of Souta. "What are you doing here?"
"He's the one," Reno wheezed, clutching at his side. "He's the guy who's been behind all this."
Makoto, deprived of his jian, stared in abject shock. "You're serious? Grandpa Souta, is he serious?"
Souta's boot lanced out and took Makoto between the eyes, bashing the young man down onto the floor. "Wake up, you fool. I'm not some paternal grandfather figure. Focus on the moment and who I am now, not who I was."
And with that, Souta began to change.
Spirit energy raced up and down his body, illuminating the entire temple in flickering blue-green light. As the six of them watched, Souta the Cunning was transformed. His face smoothed and hardened, his frame straightened, black hair exploded from his head and cascaded down to his shoulders. Poisonously beautiful features came into sharp focus, and what had been dull brown eyes shifted and became vivid blue.
"What the hell are you?" Reno demanded. "How the hell is this possible?"
"I am the last living master of Shiranui-ryu. It is the ultimate kenjutsu, and not simply because it lets you kill with the highest efficiency. It has the power to preserve the body by letting the body rot. It saves your strength by sapping it. Call it placing a down payment with the Planet on your life-essence, with a virtually unlimited return." He looked at Makoto, who had forced himself up off of the floor, clutching his bleeding nose. "That is why spirit energy is so destructive. If you make a withdrawal from the Planet, the Planet wants a return – from those you use the energy against… or from you."
"It really was you all the time," Jobs growled, getting unsteadily to his feet. "You were dropping subtle hints the entire time. When I asked you how you knew about Rude being the mole in the organization, you said that you would have been a fool not to use your eyes and ears – but you meant that literally."
Souta shot him a bored look. "Of course I did. I never took you to the police, either. Or perhaps you neglected to mention to your new allies that you did not remember precisely how you came to escape incarceration?"
Reno skewered Jobs with a glare. "Tell me he's kidding."
Looking mortified, Jobs replied, "He's not. When I came to after you knocked me unconscious the first time, I was back at my apartment, and there was a recording from my employer saying that he'd arranged for the police to conveniently misplace me."
"This has to be a trick," Rei groaned, also getting to her feet. "How could you hide this from Makoto and me, Grandpa? We've lived with you for more than half our lives. How can you be this horrible, evil person that you've presented us with?"
Souta shook his head at her. "You're perfectly suited to be a geisha, Rei. Beautiful, talented, and airheaded."
Lurching to his feet, Makoto balled his hands into fists and growled at the now-young man. "Don't insult her. She's as good as your daughter."
"But stupidity is the only explanation for this gross misinterpretation of my position," Souta replied callously. "After all, whether or not I am evil is just a matter of… perspective."
Karsk replayed the tape in his mind even as Arcturus drove him, David, and Mengsk towards the shrine to Seiryū at top speed.
It had shown Souta's car pull over to the curb, and Souta, Jobs, and Rei had all gotten out. From the looks of things, Souta had convinced Jobs and Rei to get out of the vehicle – perhaps he'd told them that it was going to blow up, or something.
At first Karsk had thought the camera was having technical difficulties, because Souta literally blurred for a moment, and in the next, Jobs and Rei were crumpling to the ground, unconscious. When Mern had slowed the recording, however, it was clear that Souta had moved in at lightning speed and executed what was known as a chi block on both his passengers.
Then the car had turned around and began to drive in the direction of the temple to Seiryū, showing up on monitors there a quarter hour later.
"How much longer?" Karsk asked.
"Seven to eight and a half minutes," Arcturus replied promptly. "Assuming that we don't get traffic."
The Sub-General smiled thinly. "Of course. Hurry."
"You're trying to overthrow the government and kill all of us off at the same time," Reno snapped at Souta. "I'd say that qualifies as evil."
"Black and white are both extreme shades of grey," Souta replied. "Haven't you killed people in the past, Mr. Reno, because they went against your company? You've killed in cold blood, haven't you? What differentiates you from me?"
"I do my job. You try to take over a country. I'd say there's a damn distinct difference."
"Are you really trying to take over Wutai?" Yuffie demanded. "What's your stake in this, Souta? A guy like you doesn't want to rule, he wants to sit behind the scenes and make things happen. Bureaucracy would just get in your way. You gotta be working for someone. There has to be a figurehead."
"So the black sheep of the family Kisaragi shows some intelligence," the strategist snorted. "Your timing could be better, though."
"Shut up and answer my question!"
Blowing out a bereaved sigh, Souta shouldered the Kikuichi-monji. "If you want to know so badly. I work for myself, Lady Kisaragi. Financially, I am one of the five richest men on the face of the Planet. My wealth springs from having rebuilt Wutai from the devastation dealt to it by the Shin-Ra. And why was I prepared to help? I had foreseen the outcome, as dictated by Shiranui-ryu." Souta raised his left hand and clenched it into a fist. "Adaptation, evolution. Change. A system that does not change will stagnate and crystallize, thus becoming brittle and easy to shatter. An organism that does not change will reproduce only identical copies of itself, and a single pathogen could wipe all of it out. Wutai had become stagnant and crystallized, and needed to be subjected to the hammer of the Shin-Ra to change."
"Are you talking about the idea of natural selection on an unprecedented scale?" Jobs asked, eyes wide with disbelief.
"I am talking about the propagation of active systems, Mr. Jobs," Souta hissed. "An active system, namely, is a system capable of extending its existence, living or dead. An active system is immortal, but capable of becoming inactive and thus vulnerable. You can call a human being an active system so long as it is capable of reproduction, as it then passes its genetic legacy onto its offspring. Once the human ceases to be capable of reproduction, it is an inactive system and should be discarded."
Reno balked. "That's batshit crazy. Who's gonna raise the kid?"
Unflustered, Souta continued. "Some inactive systems remain to be fed upon by active systems. An example would be the child learning ideological truths from the parent, but this is an example of the human mind's active system propagating itself through the child. The ideal is another method of propagation of the self, another way the system can persist."
"So you're saying all we exist to do is to extend ourselves – our systems?" Makoto asked.
"That is all anything exists to do. Information is viral, and moves quickly to quickly from one host to the next. Whenever you read a fictional novel, think closely on it. The information presented there is every bit as real as the information presented in a newspaper; it is simply real as pertains to a different system, namely the author's. Art, music, writing, all have sprung from the desire of the human system to extend itself."
"So how does this idea of yours relate to you taking over the government?" Rude demanded.
"Pay closer attention and you should be able to deduce it, Mr. Rude," Souta deadpanned. "Just as the author attempts to communicate a message with his book, so do I attempt to communicate a message, an ideal, to people who go through this. I am not looking to control the government, but rather collapse it entirely."
"You're doing this to create a state of anarchy," Reno said. It was not a question.
"Of course. I have already found a means of carrying on my system almost indefinitely, but I know that at one point I will cease using it. While I still do, I feel it is my duty to ensure my system's safety later on. If the government is weak, the chances that my system will be permanently halted increase, as it is forced to live within the standards set by the government's system. Thus, instead of seeking to improve my own system, a futile effort, I seek to improve the government's."
"You don't improve something by destroying it."
"Destruction is the inverse function of creation. After all the citizens rise up against the government, there will be complete chaos, not anarchy. Anarchy comes afterwards. It is free, voluntary order, not the absence of it. When the people of this city learn to unify themselves and overcome their differences in systems, they will recognize that they are not so different from those that they would profess to hate."
Reno snarled at him. "You're trying to discourage racism, but you're doing it by encouraging it with these riots? How the hell does that help?"
"It is a proven law of physics that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The violent fostering of isolationism and racism will be reacted against with an equally violent discouragement of isolationism and racism, in all those who realize that they must bind the propagation of their systems to a cause."
"I smell bullshit."
Souta shrugged. "I've had quite a long time to consider this. Don't you remember the war, Mr. Reno?"
"Yeah."
"Anti-Wutainese sentiment was at an all-time high as the war began, and was then at an all-time low by the time the war ended. Our defeat was swift, but it still more than enough time for all of you to reverse your attitudes regarding us. Now you do not discriminate against us, but we discriminate against you. It is all reactionary."
"Answer me this, then," Jobs said. "With your talk of systems and reactionary forces, do you think the world is simply some equation that you can solve? People are not so simple!"
"Simply put, anything can be converted into an equation, and vice versa. If you give me something, I can tell you what sort of system it propagates, and whose system it belongs to. We all share an equal universe."
"I don't think so," Reno growled, hauling himself to his feet despite the pain it caused him. "You're talking about spreading your personal system through your ideals. What about my personal system, Souta? What if all I want to do with my personal system is to have a few kids with Yuffie? It'll get overridden something fierce if your system keeps screwing with Wutai's."
Souta smiled thinly. "This is where the idea of mass-scale natural selection enters. To put it simply, some systems are intrinsically better than others. No system is permanent. I have not only had physical extrapolation of my system through children I had long ago, I have also imprinted my ideals on all of you, on Wutai. What have you left, Reno? Companionship and affection with those you call friends? Your system will persist in some small way in their minds, but that is entirely dependent upon the existence of their systems, whereas mine is ingrained into a multitude. If we were both to die, my system would ultimately branch out much farther than yours."
"Try again, Souta," Makoto spat. "Unless you were asleep, Reno made a speech to the Wutainese Council, and by extension everyone in Wutai – perhaps even people on the Central and Western continents. He's been in the headlines for days now. His message of unity has been propagated throughout thousands of these 'systems' that you qualify, much better than yours has."
"As they say, 'talk is cheap.' He has imparted his ideals, but how thoroughly? I will have adaptive, voluntary order, without discrimination, because I believe it is the only way to survive. I will enforce it by forcing the systems of others, and of this city, to react to it. An ideal that they think they have internalized will stay with them much better than one that is forced upon them."
Jobs frowned. "Though I hate to say it, your ideal – there's the word again – is fascinating. It's viral. You're talking about your ideal versus Reno's like they're viruses, and it's what they really are. The more virulent the disease, the more the patient is pushed to fight it off. Weaker viruses are fought off, just like Reno's weaker viral information gets fought off. Stronger viruses stay and dominate the host, just like your stronger information that the host thinks he's internalized stays and dominates the way the host functions."
"Correct," Souta said. "I call it metabiological warfare. There is a saying from one of your old military strategists: 'Wherefore the injury we do to a man should be of a sort to leave no fear of reprisals.' If I infect someone with my ideal to override their system and replace it with my own, my ideal must be more virulent than those that they possess. This is what happens with religions and zealots that follow leaders. They no longer value their own lives, because their systems become extensions of the leader's system. In effect, I will be the ruler of a rulerless government, a no-life king, with an infinite amount of subjects that are mine and me as well."
"Warfare with ideals," Makoto murmured. "Only Souta the Cunning could come up with something like this."
That elicited a small, measured smile from Souta. "Of course, returning to the original question, away from this tangent, I am only evil if you oppose me. Those who do not wish to have their own system, those who wish to cut themselves off from the pressure of having to decide how to propagate it, can come to me and see me as a savior. All of you, so individual, unwilling to conform or change, see me as evil."
"Change isn't inherently good," Rei argued. "It brings all sorts."
"Change is neither good nor evil; it merely brings about one or the other through the destruction of one system and the propagation of another. All of you find Wutai's current system stable and do not want it gone, so you find my proposed system to overwrite yours with evil. What you see as evil in me is the threat of my system's propagation overtaking yours and snuffing yours out. I would be a savior to you if you wanted this to happen; instead, you want to keep your own system and thus you are the enemy."
"And what happens after you've gone and done all this?" Yuffie asked. "You gonna just saunter off? Leave everything to take care of itself?"
Souta shook his head at her as a teacher would a troublesome student. "Systems are not only in existence here. There are always the Central and Eastern continents."
Reno felt a knife start twisting in his gut. "You'd travel out and topple governments just the same way you're trying to topple Wutai's? All in the name of propagating your viral ideals and keeping your system alive?"
"The natural urge of the living creature, the living system, is to remain alive. Whether you die by violent action or by stagnation, death will eventually come. Therefore it behooves the living system to propagate itself as much as possible, as far as possible, as long as it can before death takes it. Once my system has reached the limits of what this world can offer, my subjects can take to the stars as a united people and search out other planets to spread it to."
Jobs shook his head. "The ultimate anarchist. But why? Why do you think that anarchy is such a good system?"
"All imposed order is imposition upon systems. Only free, voluntary order, taken upon themselves by the systems, will make a difference. Ultimate freedom to a system is in this case represented by the quality of being undying. The system will find itself propagated in countless others who believe the same thing, and so if the system should find some part of itself terminated, its fellows will carry that part of it that has died."
Reno looked around at the people gathered around him. He took a deep breath and finally said, "Well. Not that this isn't fascinating and everything, but we really don't have the time, you know. What with the government coming around down our ears and everything." Leveling a finger at Souta, Reno declared, "I dunno if I buy your whole story about viral ideals and whatnot, but lemme share two of mine with you. One: a guy's ideals are his own business. You believe what you want, and screw anyone who says otherwise. Which leads nicely to number two."
Cracking his knuckles, the redhead stepped up to Souta, ignoring the Kikuichi-monji. "Number two is pretty simple. If anyone decides to believe anything that contradicts number one, I beat the shit out of them."
Souta's eyes narrowed, and he smiled thinly at Reno. "Hypocrite."
Reno drew back and lunged.
